Word Wednesday #6: Gimme Gimme!!

[NOTE: I’ve recorded the audio for this, but had some trouble with the upload/haven’t fixed the old problems so it’s on its way. In the meantime, I didn’t want to leave y’all high and dry with no daily post, so I hope you’ll accept my apologies and come back later when I’ve had a chance to edit in a sound link! Happy Korean-ing ^ ^)]

[UPDATE: I’ve added on a Soundcloud file to the bottom of this post. Hopefully it’ll work! If not in the embedded form, then I’ve provided a link below as an alternative. If either one doesn’t work, let me know!)]

At request, today’s Word Wednesday will be a useful expression. Don’t fret! Korean is quite an economical language, and as such it amounts to be one word rather than a phrase.

I have a fond relationship with this expression because it’s one of two things I learned at Korean class (maybe I’ll share the other on a different day). Part of the reason I stopped going to Korean class is also because of this word, which I’ll explain in a minute.

In the meantime, let’s go:

Word: 주새요 jusaeyo (joo-say-yo)

Definition: “Please give” (most literally), or “May I have…?” as a more colloquial equivalent. Anytime you see “요” or “yo” on the end of a Korean verb, it’s the polite version – kind of like how in English we tack on the word “please”. In terms of structure, you always put jusaeyo at the end of a sentence due to the inverted word ordering in Korean grammar. So, for example, if you wanted to order soju (typical Korean rice alcohol kind of like watered down 20% vodka), you would say “Soju jusaeyo” (“Soju give please”). So you always put the thing you want to order first and use the expression after to follow a noun-verb sentence structure.

Now, to continue with why learning this phrase made me stop going to Korean classes…well, let’s just say that once I learned how to order alcohol, I was turning up to class either massively hungover or still drunk. But hey, that’s what happens when you hold classes on Saturdays at 10:30 in the morning in a country with no last call.